The union of consumer lenders MoneyMe and SocietyOne has produced its first offspring, with the pilot launch of a transaction and savings account.
In February last year, SocietyOne signed up to Westpac’s banking-as-a-service platform, in a move to broaden its product range.
It has launched SpendOne SaveOne, a mobile-only offering that includes Apple Pay and Google Pay, in a pilot program open to a group of existing SocietyOne customers.
The savings account is paying interest of 1 per cent on balances up to A$50,000. It has a round-up facility that allows account holders to add a little to their savings account with each transaction.
Under the Westpac’s BaaS deal, deposits are held by Westpac as the APRA-regulated entity.
SpendOne SaveOne has been in the market for a couple of weeks but its launch has been overshadowed by activity surrounding SocietyOne’s merger with MoneyMe.
MoneyMe acquired SocietyOne in a deal worth $132 million in scrip, plus an additional cash payment of up to $9.7 million.
The combined businesses have receivables of $1.2 billion and forecast originations of $782 million in the year to June.
MoneyMe chief executive Clayton Howes said MoneyMe has a broader product range than SocietyOne, including an auto loan, and the merger will give it the opportunity to offer that product set to SocietyOne customers
Howes said SocietyOne’s platform is expensive and “limited”, and the business will benefit from moving across to the MoneyMe platform.
"Licensed technology platforms, used by many of our competitors and also by SocietyOne, are limited in their scope and economic leverage. By having our own proprietary technology platform Horizon, we can ensure that our roadmap is tailored to our products and customer needs. And we don't need to pay exensive licences."
He said SocietyOne has a good credit score tool that MoneyMe can leverage.
The transaction and savings accounts will help the company appeal to the young demographic that is its target market.
Another benefit of the merger is that it gives MoneyMe the scale to enter the public securitisation market, which should reduce its cost of funds.